Sticks & Stunts

Explore

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
Sticks & Stunts involves players examining arrangements of Sticks, Bingo Markers and Cards in order to choose how to move or place Sticks.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
Parents can ask children to stand up and look at the arrangements from different angles. This teaches children to explore and think before acting.

Learning Implications and Educator Support
This game helps children think about inter-relationship among parts. How does one thing I do result in something I do not expect. Many fine motor games, including construction and puzzle solving require this type of study. Educators can encourage children to think about various aspects: placement of Sticks, position Bingo Markers and Cards, carefulness of movement, how next actions change when another play acts, etc.

Determine

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
Sticks & Stunts involves many different types of determination, including: 1) players look at a card and memorize the image in order to replicate it with Sticks; 2) players listen to the directions of the card reader while trying to create what the reader is describing; 3) players analyze the position of Sticks, Bingo Markers and Cards to decide how to move Sticks on their turn; 4) players select the correct answer for the trivia questions.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
Parents can encourage children to examine and listen closely to decide on the best option for a given play. If children are having difficulty remembering or choosing an option, ask a couple of questions that will help them remember or deduce the correct answer.

Learning Implications and Educator Support
trategy games or activities that require anticipation of consequences all require analysis of the specific aspects of the situation. Educators can encourage looking at more than one spot before determining which stick to place. Sticks & Stunts also helps children develop observation and visualization skills as they look at and interpret the stick designs and verbal directions of other players. The game also draws on a child's memory of facts or ability to logically eliminate options prior to guessing from three choices. If children are having difficulty remembering or choosing an option, ask a couple of questions that will help them remember or deduce the correct answer.

Compare

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
Players will compare the Stick designs and verbal descriptions of other players, as well as the Stick image on the Memory Builder cards, to the Stick designs they are making. They will also compare what worked and didn't work on each turn and begin to modify their approach to the building activities.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
Parents can encourage children to compare their actions to determine what was successful. For example, "Why did a Stick fall or not fall on the previous turn?"

Learning Implications and Educator Support
Sticks and Stunts involves advanced versions of comparison, namely, visual-memory for the Stick designs and auditory-memory for the directions given by the card readers. These types of comparison are advanced because children need to compare something being experienced with something that is remembered. Educators can ask children to discuss why a move worked or didn't, and how one move was similar or different than another.

Remember

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
While there are numerous memory building aspects of the game, two primary types of memory activities are highlighted in Sticks & Stunts. First, the Memory Builder cards involve players' building a Stick design that matches the image on the card which was shown only for a few seconds. Second, the Knowledge Master and Number Whiz cards test players' memory of science, history, geography and other fun facts.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
If children are having difficulty remembering the image on the Memory Builder cards, give the children more time and allow them to pick up the card to examine it closely. With the Knowledge Master and Number Whiz cards, parents can ask a couple of questions to help children remember or deduce the correct answer.

Learning Implications and Educator Support
Sticks & Stunts helps develop or reinforce visual, physical and auditory memory. If children are having difficulty remembering the image on the Memory Builder cards, give the children more time and allow them to pick up the card to examine it closely. The game also draws on a child's memory of facts or ability to logically eliminate options prior to guessing from three choices. If children are having difficulty remembering or choosing an option, ask a couple of questions that will help them remember or deduce the correct answer.

Predict

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
With experience with the building aspects of the game such as Secret Plans, Skill Challenge, Create It and Speed Builder, players will be able to predict the likelihood of success on any particular turn or action.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
The experience with this game may help children think ahead and be more cautious before acting. This is particularly true if adults reinforce the learning. For example, "Remember what happens if you don't think ahead? You may knock down the sticks."

Learning Implications and Educator Support
In Sticks & Stunts, prediction is closely tied to planning and experimentation when a child takes a stick and tries to place it in different locations prior to determining a final location. Similarly, children may need to decide on which stick to remove by predicting what will happen after the stick is moved. This is a great way to teach trial and error strategy and spatial reasoning. With experience with the game, players will be able to predict the likelihood of success on any particular turn. Educators can also ask children to predict what will happen on each turn. This will help children think more carefully and be less impulsive.

Plan

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
Many of the cards require players to quickly plan actions to take in order to build a structure, slide or drop a Stick to a specific spot, make a design or describe a design to other players.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
For the activities that are not timed, parents can encourage children to examine closely to decide on the best option for a given play. This helps reduce impulsivity. For the activities that require speed, encourage children to think first and then act. A few moments of thinking and analysis can help the child make a successful move quickly.

Learning Implications and Educator Support
Playing Sticks & Stunts helps develop observation, analytical and planning skills as children either make quick plans (ex: motor planning to create a Stick structure in Speed Builder), respond quickly to the card reader (ex: motor planning to place Sticks based on directions from card reader in Secret Plans), or determine where to stand and place one's arm and hand to drop a Stick onto a Bingo Marker.

Experiment

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
The Create It, Skill Challenge and Secret Plans cards give players chances to experiment with approaches to make successful moves.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
If you observe a child getting stuck on Create It, encourage them to try something completely different. For example, if the child needs to create an elephant, they could try to use the sticks to create the whole elephant or just the head with big ears and trunk. On the Skill Challenge and Secret Plans, children who try different approaches and find what works are more successful than children who are impulsive. Parents can encourage children's efforts to try something different when the previous approach failed.

Learning Implications and Educator Support
Changing perspective is a powerful experimentation technique that supports innovative thinking and creative problem-solving. Encourage children to think about how others think and feel when describing the Secret Plans or making the image on the Create It card. This can help them think of different ways to talk, describe and design to help other players accurately guess or recreate images out of sticks. Willingness try new things and adaptability are also important experimentation skills. For example, If you observe a child getting stuck on Create It, encourage them to try something completely different. For example, if the child needs to create an elephant, they could try to use the sticks to create the whole elephant or just the head with big ears and trunk.

Practice

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
The physical activity cards give players practice with their strategies, communication and dexterity.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
No special parent support required. However, to help build children's confidence and motivation, acknowledge and celebrate the progress they make as a result of their practice and effort.

Learning Implications and Educator Support
No special teacher support required. However, to help build children's confidence and motivation, acknowledge and celebrate the progress they make as a result of their practice and effort.

Solve

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
Sticks & Stunts involves lots of problem-solving including creating and following verbal instructions, deciding how to move sticks based on the moves of other players and eliminating options in order to pick a correct answer.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
This game encourages children to be persistent in their efforts to solve the different challenges, create designs or answer trivia questions. Drawing conclusions from several tries is important, but doesn't always happen naturally. Parents can help children see what worked by asking questions or by making comments, such as "When you pushed the stick hard, it fell off the table. What do you think will work now?" Parents should comment on children's persistence and their efforts to try to solve the problem. They can also encourage them to help each other with ideas and support.

Learning Implications and Educator Support
This game encourages children to be persistent in their efforts to solve the different challenges, create designs or answer trivia questions. Drawing conclusions from several tries is important, but doesn't always happen naturally. Parents can help children see what worked by asking questions or by making comments, such as "When you pushed the stick hard, it fell off the table. What do you think will work now?" Educators should comment on children's persistence and their efforts to try to solve the problem. They can also encourage them to help each other with ideas and support.

Review

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
Several of the activities, especially Create It, Skill Challenge and Speed Builder, required players to review their creations to those on the Activity Card.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
Although not required, it is fun to discuss activities after they are complete. What worked? What was hard? How could I do it differently next time?

Learning Implications and Educator Support
Although not required, it is fun to discuss activities after they are complete. What worked? What was hard? How could I do it differently next time? This type of process analysis can help children learn from each other, and develop communication and social skills.

Demonstrate

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
There are different types of demonstration skills developed in Sticks & Stunts. Players demonstrate their knowledge of facts and deductive reasoning with Number Whiz and Knowledge Master. They show their creative skills by making stick versions of the objects on the Create It cards. They exhibit their memory and building skills with many of the other activity cards.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
No special parent support required. However, if a child does an especially good job giving directions or guessing, give the child a high five and ask them to tell everyone they figured it out. Similarly, celebrate and ask children to explain how they were successful in other activities. Positive reinforcement helps build self-esteem and confidence

Learning Implications and Educator Support
No special parent support required. However, if a child does an especially good job giving directions or guessing, give the child a high five and ask them to tell everyone they figured it out. Similarly, celebrate and ask children to explain how they were successful in other activities. Positive reinforcement helps build self-esteem and confidence.

Imagine

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
Create It cards encourage players to use their imagination as they think of ways to use sticks to create a design that will make the other players guess the image on the Create It card. They also need to think of ways to describe how to build the structures on the Secret Plans cards.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
When a child is the card reader on a Create It card, encourage them to try making different designs as they think of them. Imagination can be greatly enhanced by simultaneously making prototypes, sketching and building the things you are dreaming up.

Learning Implications and Educator Support
Imagination is the partner to creativity, i.e. high quality creativity is dependent on high quality imagination. Imagination is critical in everything from developing long-term successful relationships to inventing the cure for cancer to solving day-to-day problems where old methods do not work well any more. Playing Sticks & Stunts is good for helping children strengthen their imagination skills across visual, physical and verbal domains.

Create

What Does Child Do To Use Skill In The Game?
After imagining what they are going to do, players need to create what they imagined.

How Parents Can Assist Learning
Creativity is the most complex and advanced thinking skill. Sticks & Stunts helps children explore a range of creative modes, namely, verbal, visual and physical. Creativity is not limited to poetry or art!

Learning Implications and Educator Support
Creativity is the most complex and advanced thinking skill. Sticks & Stunts helps children explore a range of creative modes, namely, verbal, visual and physical. Creativity is not limited to poetry or art!

Cognitive

Suggestions for How to Modify Play Experience
Secret Plan cards require the player drawing the card to give very specific directions for placement of sticks to the other players. If the child has language comprehension issues, eliminate the Secret Plan Cards. The other card challenges do not require language comprehension.
Take out the more difficult Activity Cards requiring building with the sticks, leaving just the simple structures. This will allow children who have difficulty with spatial matching to practice making simple patterns.
Eliminate the Bingo Board and number tokens. Play the game according to the rules, but the scoring is based on collecting the bingo markers, not playing them on the Bingo Board. The first person to get 10 bingo markers wins. This makes the game less complex for children with cognitive challenges.

Communication

Suggestions for How to Modify Play Experience
Secret Plan cards require the player drawing the card to give very specific directions for placement of sticks to the other players. If the child has language comprehension issues, eliminate the Secret Plan Cards. The other card challenges do not require language comprehension.
Secret Plan cards require the player drawing the card to give very specific directions for placement of sticks. If the child has language production concerns and draws a Secret Plan card, allow the child to draw another card.

Sensorimotor

Suggestions for How to Modify Play Experience
Sticks and Stunts is not recommended for children who have problems with manipulating and maneuvering small objects. The majority of tasks require picking up, stacking, and/or balancing small sticks.

Social Emotional/Behavioral

Suggestions for How to Modify Play Experience
Sticks and Stunts requires concentration and patience. Children who are impulsive or have a low tolerance for frustration may find this game stressful. Start with the easiest cards, such as the Lucky Sticks, Create It, and Knowledge Master. Add the other categories of cards one at a time.
Play in pairs. Players can then select which team member wants to take on a challenge. This allows children to learn negotiation and also how to support a teammate. Children with emotional concerns can also choose to opt out of a certain number of challenges (for example, three challenges) that are too anxiety provoking and select another card.

Vision

Suggestions for How to Modify Play Experience
This game is not recommended for children with low vision.

Hearing

Suggestions for How to Modify Play Experience
Eliminate the Secret Plan cards, which require listening to and following direction for where to place sticks.
Allow players with hearing problems to read or show the cards that ask questions that need to be answered.

*Data compiled from CCSSI ELA Standards, WA Science Standards, and Washington Social Studies Standards

No recommended expansions. Sticks and Stunt has many options already.